Plant-Based Canada Podcast

In this episode of the Plant-Based Canada Podcast, we talk to Dr. Thomas Hedley – a certified lifestyle medicine doctor who also practices as a GP oncologist at BC Cancer in Vancouver, Canada. His interest in lifestyle medicine started while working in a research lab that showed eating ground flaxseed, which comes from the flax plant, could lower blood pressure as much as medication. Since then, he shifted toward a plant-based eating pattern and personally experienced increased vitality as a result.

As a lifestyle medicine doctor, Dr. Hedley has worked with patients wanting to adopt a plant-based diet to improve their health. Through his work, he has witnessed people of all ages experiencing the benefits of adding more plant-based foods into their life.

Dr. Hedley gives us a crash course in how, what, and when to eat when shifting to a healthier diet. From swapping foods out for healthier ones, to managing cravings, to easing into plant-based diets.

Resources

• Summary of study on the benefits of ground flaxseed for high blood pressure
• Calculator that estimates the impact of food choices on life expectancy, and original study used to create the tool
• Study on ultra-processed food addiction
• Study on GLP-1 levels in response to plant-based vs. beef burger
• Referenced study on morning loaded vs. evening loaded calories
• Dr. Hedley's Linkedin profile 

Bonus Promotion

Check out University of Guelph's online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate. Each 4-week course will guide you through essential plant-based topics including nutritional benefits, disease prevention, and environmental impacts. You can also customize your learning with unique courses such as Plant-Based Diets for Athletes and Implementing a Plant-Based Diet at Home. As the first university-level plant-based certificate in Canada, you’ll explore current research, learn from leading industry experts, and join a community of like-minded people. Use our exclusive discount code PBC2024 to save 10% on all Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate courses. uoguel.ph/pbn.

Support the show

Today’s episode of the Plant-Based Canada Podcast is Dr. Richard Twine. Dr. Twine is a Reader in Sociology and Co-Director of the Centre for Human-Animal Studies (CfHAS) at Edge Hill University, UK. His latest book is The Climate Crisis and Other Animals (Sydney University Press, 2024). He is also co-editor of The Rise of Critical Animal Studies – From the Margins to the Centre (Routledge, 2014), and author of Animals as Biotechnology – Ethics, Sustainability and Critical Animal Studies (Routledge, 2010). He has also published several articles on ecofeminism, vegan transition, the food system, and the animal-industrial complex.

Resources

• Dr. Twine’s book: The Climate Crisis and Other Animals
• Dr. Twine’s website
• Dr. Twine's Twitter
• The Vegan Society 
• Dr. Twine's Google Scholar page
•  Animal Studies: Key Concepts by Matthew Calarco

Bonus Promotion

Check out University of Guelph's online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate. Each 4-week course will guide you through essential plant-based topics including nutritional benefits, disease prevention, and environmental impacts. You can also customize your learning with unique courses such as Plant-Based Diets for Athletes and Implementing a Plant-Based Diet at Home. As the first university-level plant-based certificate in Canada, you’ll explore current research, learn from leading industry experts, and join a community of like-minded people. Use our exclusive discount code PBC2024 to save 10% on all Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate courses. uoguel.ph/pbn.

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Welcome to the Plant-Based Canada Podcast. In this episode we are joined by Dr. Prashant Jani to chat about his experiences in surgical pathology to community initiatives, including a food truck.

Dr. Prashant Jani is a Pathologist and Associate Professor at Northern Ontario School of Medicine in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

He completed his MBBS (1994) and MD (1997) from Pune University, India. He then came to Canada and completed a residency in Anatomic Pathology, and FRCPC, from the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2001-2005). 

Dr. Jani is the inaugural Clinical Sciences Division Faculty Wellness Lead at Northern Ontario Cancer Research Centre, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. He has been practicing as a Pathologist and an Associate Professor of Pathology for the past 15 years and has been dedicated to promoting wellness for over 25 years. More specifically, he is a dedicated yoga instructor who has provided mental, physical and spiritual well-being in Thunder Bay for nearly two decades.

Dr. Jani is the founder of the Superior Yoga Festival, Festival of India, Festival of Colours and Superior Veg Fest in Thunder Bay.  He has launched a volunteer-run, low-cost vegetarian meal delivery service out of the Vedic Cultural Centre, and expanded this to include a food truck. Lastly, Dr. Jani has established NovaCare Health and Wellness Centre in Thunder Bay to rehabilitate patients with chronic diseases. 

In this episode we discuss:

• Dr. Jani’s plant-based journey
• Typical day, plus tools and techniques in pathology 
• Advocacy efforts and initiatives through the Vedic Cultural Centre
• Take home message

Episode Resources:
Festival of Colours
Vedic Cultural Centre
Nova Care Health and Wellness
Festival of India

Dr. Prashant Jani’s Socials:
Instagram
YouTube
Talk With Your Doc Facebook

Plant-Based Canada’s Socials:
Instagram
Facebook
Website
X / Twitter: @PBC_org

Bonus Promotion
Check out University of Guelph's online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate. Each 4-week course will guide you through essential plant-based topics including nutritional benefits, disease prevention, and environmental impacts. You can also customize your learning with unique courses such as Plant-Based Diets for Athletes and Implementing a Plant-Based Diet at Home. As the first university-level plant-based certificate in Canada, you’ll explore current research, learn from leading industry experts, and join a community of like-minded people. Use our exclusive discount code PBC2024 to save 10% on all Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate courses. uoguel.ph/pbn.

Thank you for tuning in! Make sure to subscribe to the Plant-Based Canada Podcast so you get notified when new episodes are published. 

This episode was hosted by Stephanie Nishi RD, PhD.

Support the show

In this episode of the Plant-Based Canada Podcast, we sit down with Eleanor Boyle. She’s a Vancouver-based writer who focuses on food policy and sustainable diets. A long-time journalist and former college instructor, she has written many articles on ways to improve our food systems. She has two book – “High Steaks: Why and How to Eat Less Meat”, and “Mobilize Food: Wartime Inspiration for Environmental Victory Today”.

In our conversation, Eleanor discusses the recent news that avian flu has been detected in dairy cows in the U.S., and how scientists here in Canada are now sounding the alarm about staying ahead of an outbreak here at home. She delves into the issues around factory farming, and how these kinds of zoonotic diseases can become larger threats with pandemic potential.

But besides highlighting the concerns, Eleanor also outlines the complicated path to alleviating the massive impacts our food systems have on everything from planetary health… to our own individual health.


Resources

• Eleanor’s article in the online National Observer, outlining evidence that poultry farming is a major factor in the rise and spread of bird flu
• Eleanor’s introductory 2024 blog post on avian flu
• Peer-reviewed scientific article showing that avian-flu viruses mutate into lethal form most often among poultry
• Comprehensive and expert bird-flu report (2023) from Compassion in World Farming, entitled Bird Flu: Only Major Farm Reforms Can End It
• Dr. Michael Greger’s Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching
• United Nation’s Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds
• Eleanor’s book “High Stakes: Why and How to Eat Less Meat”

Bonus Promotion
Check out University of Guelph's online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate. Each 4-week course will guide you through essential plant-based topics including nutritional benefits, disease prevention, and environmental impacts. You can also customize your learning with unique courses such as Plant-Based Diets for Athletes and Implementing a Plant-Based Diet at Home. As the first university-level plant-based certificate in Canada, you’ll explore current research, learn from leading industry experts, and join a community of like-minded people. Use our exclusive discount code PBC2024 to save 10% on all Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate courses. uoguel.ph/pbn.

Support the show

Welcome to the Plant-Based Canada Podcast. In this episode we are joined by Dr. Cass Warbeck to chat about her experiences in the martial arts and medicine.

Dr. Cass Warbeck is an avid martial arts athlete, having attained a black belt in Goju Ryu karate and black level in Kurama Yama kickboxing. After reading The China Study by T. Colin Campbell in 2013, she went plant-based and never looked back. A plant-based diet fueled her amateur Muay Thai fighting career and in March 2019 won the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) North American Bantamweight Muay Thai Title. Since then, she has also competed in Brazilian jiu jitsu. Cass has always loved inspiring and educating others to achieve better personal health through physical movement and nutrition. She completed a Bachelor of Science in Health and Fitness Physiology at the University of Calgary and worked as a personal trainer before completing medical school at the University of Alberta. She is currently a first year family medicine resident in Edmonton, Alberta with plans to pursue a fellowship in Sports and Exercise Medicine. Cass looks forward to utilizing the power of lifestyle medicine and plant-based nutrition in her future medical practice. Cass has been featured in the book, Legends of Change, and the magazine Canadian Vegan. She is also a long term volunteer for the organization Nutritionfacts.org and is the host of The Plant Fueled Podcast.

In this episode we discuss:

• Cass’ plant-based journey
• Questions and concerns faced by plant-based athletes
• Disordered eating and “orthorexia”
• What an amateur Muay Thai career looks like
• Intentional imbalance
• Inspirations in lifestyle medicine 
• Lifestyle medicine approach
• Take home message

Episode Resources
2019 North American Muay Thai Title fight video
2019 kickboxing fight video
The China Study
Thrive Diet by Brendan Brazier
NutritionFacts
SWAP-MEAT Trial
Microbiota & Interval Training  

Dr. Cass Warbeck’s Socials
Instagram: @casswarbeck
Podcast: The Plant Fueled Podcast
ORCiD 

Plant-Based Canada Conference (May 25th, 2024) link here.

Bonus
Check out University of Guelph's online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate. Each 4-week course will guide you through essential plant-based topics including nutritional benefits, disease prevention, and environmental impacts. You can also customize your learning with unique courses such as Plant-Based Diets for Athletes and Implementing a Plant-Based Diet at Home. As the first university-level plant-based certificate in Canada, you’ll explore current research, learn from leading industry experts, and join a community of like-minded people. Use our exclusive discount code PBC2024 to save 10% on all Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate courses. uoguel.ph/pbn.

Support the show

Welcome to the Plant-Based Canada Podcast. In this episode we are joined by Dr. Michael Klaper to chat about his experiences in plant-based practices and Moving Medicine Forward.

Dr. Michael Klaper is an internationally-recognized clinician and teacher, and sought-after speaker on diet and health. He graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, United States and served a medical internship at Vancouver General Hospital in British Columbia, Canada. Dr. Klaper received post-graduate training in surgery, anesthesiology and orthopedics at the University of British Columbia Hospitals in Vancouver, and obstetrics at the University of California Hospital, San Francisco.

After a fifty-year career as a primary care physician, Dr. Klaper’s full-time focus is the non-profit, Moving Medicine Forward, which provides education for medical students and physicians on the use of diet and lifestyle practices to prevent and, often, reverse chronic disease. In powerful, often “career-changing” lectures and discussion groups, Dr. Klaper presents effective, diet-based strategies to help resolve hypertension, obesity, type 2 diabetes and many inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.

A member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Dr. Klaper currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Plantrician Project and for the "International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention." 

Dr. Klaper teaches that “health comes from healthy living” and he is dedicated to the healing and flourishing of all living beings on our planet.

In this episode we discuss:

• Dr. Klaper’s plant-based journey
• Concept of plant-based nutrition
• Key nutrition related considerations
• Health impacts
• Practical advice
• Aroga 

Episode Resources
ACLM
Nutrition Facts
Dr. Neal Barnard 
Plantrician Project
Moving Medicine Forward
Goodbye Autoimmune Disease by Dr. Goldner 
University of Wisconsin course
Aroga 

Dr. Klaper’s Socials
Website

Plant-Based Canada’s Socials
Instagram 
Facebook
X / Twitter @PBC_org
Conference (May 25th, 2024)

Bonus
Check out University of Guelph's online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate. Each 4-week course will guide you through essential plant-based topics including nutritional benefits, disease prevention, and environmental impacts. You can also customize your learning with unique courses such as Plant-Based Diets for Athletes and Implementing a Plant-Based Diet at Home. As the first university-level plant-based certificate in Canada, you’ll explore current research, learn from leading industry experts, and join a community of like-minded people. Use our exclusive discount code PBC2024 to save 10% on all Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate courses. uoguel.ph/pbn.

Support the show

In this episode of the Plant-Based Canada Podcast, we chat with Dr. Christine Gibson. She is a Family Medicine physician with academic expertise in medical education and holistic care, with twenty years of clinical experience. Through extensive additional specialty training, she has become a local and national leader in education and practice related to health inequity and trauma healing.

Dr. Gibson is a Mental Health Influencer on Tiktok as under the name “tiktok trauma doc”, and has published a book with Hachette Go/John Murray called The Modern Trauma Toolkit. It is an accessible, solutions-focused look at the stress of modern times.

As founder, Executive Director, and consultant through Global Familymed Foundation, she works with Universities in resource-poor environments in strengthening and building capacity for primary care postgraduate training. She also founded The Healing Centred Cooperative in 2020, which successfully ran a music and breath program for immigrants through the City of Calgary’s Change Can’t Wait Mental Health and Addiction grant, as well as Safer Spaces Training, which trains professionals to create psychological safety in professional work settings. 

Dr. Gibson will also be speaking at a TED event in Oshawa soon. You can find tickets here: https://www.tedxoshawa.com/ 

Dr. Gibson's Resources

Website
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
TikTok
Instagram
Dr. Gibson's book: "The Modern Trauma Toolkit"
The Modern Trauma Toolkit Resources
Global FamilyMed
Safer Spaces Training

Bonus

Check out University of Guelph's online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate. Each 4-week course will guide you through essential plant-based topics including nutritional benefits, disease prevention, and environmental impacts. You can also customize your learning with unique courses such as Plant-Based Diets for Athletes and Implementing a Plant-Based Diet at Home. As the first university-level plant-based certificate in Canada, you’ll explore current research, learn from leading industry experts, and join a community of like-minded people. Use our exclusive discount code PBC2024 to save 10% on all Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate courses. uoguel.ph/pbn.

Support the show

Welcome to the Plant-Based Canada Podcast. In this episode we are joined by Prof Jordi Salas-Salvadó to chat about the Mediterranean diet.

Prof Jordi Salas-Salvadó is a medical doctor and a Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and research at Rovira i Virgili University, in Spain. He is the Director of the Food, Nutrition and Mental Health Research Group recognized by the Government of Catalonia; Principal Investigator of the CIBER Network Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn) of the Carlos III Health Institute; Director of the Catalan Nutrition Centre of the Institute of Catalan Studies; Chairman of the Professorship Tree Nut World Forum for Nutrition Research and Dissemination; member of the Group of Experts of the Public Health Agency of Catalonia. Prof Salas-Salvadó is an expert in clinical trials evaluating the effect of diets and dietary compounds on cardiometabolic health. He was a lead researcher of the PREDIMED study, a landmark trial evaluating the effect of the Mediterranean Diet on the primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases. He is currently the Director and Chair of the Steering Committee of the PREDIMED-Plus trial. He has published >900 scientific articles (h-index 101; >30,000 citations; Clarivate Analytics “Highly Cited Researcher”) and has received multiple awards and recognitions. In addition to all the above, he has been a mentor to many researchers & health professionals, including the host of the podcast episode, and we are grateful to have him join the podcast and share his expertise as an honorary Canadian.

In this episode:
-History behind the Mediterranean diet
-PREDIMED Trial: development, findings, impact
-PREDIMED-Plus Trial: development, findings, impact
-The future of PREDIMED-Plus & nutrition research

Episode Resources:
PREDIMED-Mediterranean Diet & Heart Disease
PREDIMED-Plus: Design & methods
PREDIMED-Plus: 1-Yr results
11 clinical trials that will shape medicine in 2023 

Prof. Jordi Salas-Salvadó’s Socials:
Website
X/ Twitter: @JordiSalasSalva  & @nutrihumana_URV
Web of Science
ORCID

Plant-Based Canada’s Socials:
Instagram @plantbasedcanadaorg
Facebook
Website
X / Twitter @PBC_org
Conference-May 25, 2024 

Bonus: Check out University of Guelph's online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate.

Each 4-week course will guide you through essential plant-based topics including nutritional benefits, disease prevention, and environmental impacts. You can also customize your learning with unique courses such as Plant-Based Diets for Athletes and Implementing a Plant-Based Diet at Home.

As the first university-level plant-based certificate in Canada, you’ll explore current research, learn from leading industry experts, and join a community of like-minded people.

Use our exclusive discount code PBC2024 to save 10% on all Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate courses! uoguel.ph/pbn.

Thank you for tuning in!

Support the show

Dr. Margaret Robinson (she/her) is a Mi’kmaw scholar and a member of Lennox Island First Nation. She works as an Associate Professor at Dalhousie University in Mi’kma’ki, where she holds the Tier II Canada Research Chair in Reconciliation, Gender, and Identity. Dr. Robinson is two-spirit, bisexual, and queer, and her research examines how culture and identity support wellbeing.

In our conversation, we discuss on Dr. Robinson’s research into feminism and bisexuality, the work she did in developing a measure for microaggresions and microaffirmations experienced by bisexual women, racism experienced by Indigenous communities in the Canadian Health-Care system, navigating veganism as an Indigenous person, and ways to decolonize our food systems.

Resources

• Cultural Continuity as a Protective Factor Against Suicide in First Nations Youth, Michael J. Chandler and Christopher Lalonde
• Bi+ Women of Toronto
• “Mental health and substance use among bisexual youth and non-youth in Ontario, Canada”, Co-authored by Margaret Robinson 
• “Prevalence and Mental Health Correlates of Illegal Cannabis Use Among Bisexual Women”, Co-Authored by Margaret Robinson  
• “Bisexual Women's Experience of Microaggressions and Microaffirmations: A Community-Based, Mixed-Methods Scale Development Project”, Co-authored by Margaret Robinson 
• “The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory”, Carol J. Adams  
• Victory Garden of Tomorrow
• Margaret Robinson Google Scholar 

Promo

Do you want to take your plant-based knowledge to the next level?

The online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate through Open Learning and Educational Support at the University of Guelph has everything you need to know about implementing a sustainable plant-based diet. Each course is just four weeks long and will guide you through essential topics including nutritional benefits, disease prevention, and environmental impacts. You can also customize your learning with unique courses such as Plant-Based Diets for Athletes and Implementing a Plant-Based Diet at Home.

As the first university-level plant-based certificate in Canada, you’ll explore current research, learn from leading industry experts, and join a community of like-minded people.

Use our exclusive discount code PBC2024 to save 10% on all Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate courses! uoguel.ph/pbn.

Support the show

Dr. Amardeep Singh Mangat was born in Tanzania and moved to California when he was 2-years-old. His parents are originally from Punjab India, but he grew up in San Francisco. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency with honours of ‘Resident of the Year’ and was selected Chief Resident at the UCSF-affiliated Alameda County Medical Center.

He moved to Toronto in 2012 and has been working in the division of General Internal Medicine at North York General Hospital, which is the leading community academic hospital in all of Canada. Dr. Mangat serves as the GIM lead for the rapid referral Internal Medicine clinic and is also a lecturer at University of Toronto.

In addition to all of that, Dr. Mangat is now the medical director of the  Aroga Lifestyle medicine clinic in the GTA. Aroga is a trail-blazing clinic with an multi-disciplinary team that believes that most, if not all, cardiac and metabolic illnesses can be prevented and treated with intensive lifestyle modifications. Their team uses evidenced-based therapies to empower patients to experience true healing and wellness.

Resources

Aroga.com

Aroga's Instagram

Dr. Mangat's Instagram

Perspective: Plant-Based Eating Pattern for Type 2 Diabetes Prevention and Treatment: Efficacy, Mechanisms, and Practical Considerations

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